NI Yunning is a PhD student in the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HKIHSS) at The University of Hong Kong. Before entering the PhD program, he completed his bachelor’s (in Economics) and master’s (in Public Finance) degrees at Henan University.

His master's thesis, titled "The Reform of Transporting Tribute-Grain by Seaway and the Coast Defence in Late Qing China - an Argument Treating the Rechannelling of the Yellow River in 1855 as an Exogenous Shock," sheds light on the fact that the Yellow River's rechannelling in 1855 forced the Qing Court to transition to a sea-shipping system for tribute-grain, inadvertently exposing China's taxation throat to foreign navies from the open sea. As a result, maritime defence became a crucial aspect of Qing's national defence layout. This evolutionary process showcases how institutional change can sometimes be a forced choice for a country in the face of public disasters and crises, but neither be mandatory nor induced, where there is no clear trade-off expectation for the decision-maker. Furthermore, the decision can have a time-delay effect, meaning that during the decision-making process, the reforming object and interference factors can change still.

Tentatively, under the primary supervision of Prof. CHEN Zhiwu and co-supervision of Dr. MA Chicheng, NI will continue his research on the relationship between the tribute transportation and the canal maintenance in the Qing Dynasty for his PhD project.